The Georgia Tech Athletic Association board of trustees approved contract extensions for football coach Brent Key and for athletic director J Batt. The extensions were approved Friday during the board’s meeting.
Both new contracts will run through 2029 and are expected to include significant raises in their respective annual salaries.
Key is 18-15 as Tech’s coach and 14-9 against the ACC. The former Tech offensive lineman, since he was hired as the program’s full-time coach in November 2022, is 14-11 overall and 10-8 in league games. He has guided the Yellow Jackets to back-to-back bowl appearances for the first time since 2013-14, and the 2024 team was the first to go undefeated at Bobby Dodd Stadium since 1999.
Key’s original contract paid him a salary of $2.9 million this past year and was to jump to $3 million starting Jan. 1.
“But I think the manner in which we went about this season was certainly emblematic of our programmatic success. We’re continuing to take steps forward,” Batt said during Friday’s meeting about the football program under Key’s leadership.
Batt was hired by Tech from Alabama in October 2022. His original contract, running until 2027, gave him an annual salary of $750,000, and he received a signing bonus of $50,000. He also was eligible to receive up to $100,000 annually in performance incentives for hitting athletic, academic and financial performance goals set by Tech President Ángel Cabrera.
Cabrera lauded the efforts of Tech athletics during the fall season and noted the high exposure, especially the football program, brought to the school during recent weeks during an upset win over then-No. 4 Miami and a near-upset of Georgia in an eight-overtime loss in Athens. Cabrera and Batt were on the field during the Jackets’ epic battle with UGA.
“Nothing comes close to the power of athletics who carry that Georgia Tech brand all over the world.”
A North Carolina graduate, Batt has ushered in a new era during a tumultuous time in college athletics. Tech hired Key to coach the football program and Damon Stoudamire to lead the men’s basketball program, struck a sponsorship deal with Hyundai to rename the football stadium Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field, helped created Tech football’s pregame party “Helluva Block Party” and created a new executive associate athletic director for player management role within the athletics department during Batt’s tenure.
Tech and the Alexander-Tharpe Fund, the school’s fundraising arm, launched the Full Steam Ahead campaign in October. The $500 million fundraising initiative includes projects to renovate Bobby Dodd Stadium and the Zelnak Basketball Center.
In November, Batt was appointed chairman of the board of the College Football Hall of Fame, which is headquartered in downtown Atlanta.
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